In-foal mare makes winning start for Condon In-foal Maid of Spirit made a winning start for her new trainer Ken Condon when landing the Equine MediRecord Handicap at the Curragh today, scoring under jockey Chris Hayes. The daughter of Invincible Spirit won twice in Britain when trained by Clive Cox and today, sporting a first-time tongue-tie, came out on top in a tight battle with eventual neck runner-up Ardhoomey, with the same margin back to third-placed Fridtjof Nansen. Condon later reported “she’s a filly that Con Harrington owns but it’s her first run for us. They thought quite a bit of her in England. She’s a speedy filly and well-bred, and is in foal to Footstepsinthesand. “She has until August to run away so that’s a great start. As with all well-bred fillies they would like to get a bit of black type but she’ll need to improve a bit. “Chris said she took a blow and she might improve fitness wise. She’s in the Rockingham so we may go for that and then try for a bit of black type. “She’s been with us since February. She’s very big but trains well. She’s not had that many runs even though she’s five.” Quotes from Alan Magee
